Chapter 1: Molden puts his hand up, 'Who's with me?'
30-Year Throwback: Gang Green, Oregon's 1994 Pac-10 Champions
Down through the past 30 years, retelling of Oregon's 1994 Pac-10 title season became increasingly centered on one particular October play — one iconic Autzen Stadium moment that snatched victory from a heated rival.
The Pick — "Kenny Wheaton's gonna score!"
But it couldn't have started with The Pick. A football championship season doesn't start eight games in — if you're not in the title race by then, it's already too late.
Don’t get it twisted, The Pick was an awesome play when I saw it live in person back in '94. To this day, The Pick is still an epic highlight — especially pregame on the ginormous video board at Autzen.
The ‘94 Pac-10 title season didn't live in that one play — In football, there's always more to it.
"I take my hat off to everyone on the '94 roster. All the coaches, training staff, everyone," Wheaton said when he and I talked recently. "Early on, it used to upset me that people who didn't watch us acted like they thought I only ever made one play."
Wheaton, Oregon Hall of Famer and former #ProDucks DB for the Dallas Cowboys now coaches his Next Level youth football camps — Learn more: @Kennywheaton
Within the Oregon program, the 1994 Pac-10 championship has always been a story of potential shaping reality; players becoming a team — a 1-2 start transforming to a 9-3 regular season.
Gang Green 30-Year Throwback is an series, built from our exclusive interviews with Oregon's 1994 Pac-10 Champions. Subscribe and have subsequent chapters of the Gang Green 30-Year Throwback delivered to your inbox:
Chapter 1: The Meeting
Championship seasons are forged in the heat of summer workouts; fueled by ambitions unsatisfied in previous years.
Winning programs are built on deep foundations, not suddenly hatched late in the homestretch of a single season.
Within the 1994 team, some are certain two off-field moments were invaluable in setting the stage for Oregon's '94 Pac-10 championship.
Locker room remix
Through the 1993 season, the locker room had subtly divided itself into subcommittees within the team — it’s been said that one unspoken division was racial; within that, subdivisions of offense from defense; skill players from linemen.
"Coming in for '93, there was obvious talent in the locker room but it wasn't a team yet," Wheaton said.
Wheaton became a third-round pick in the 1997 NFL Draft after earning two All-America and three All-Pac-10 honors.
In the offseason after Oregon's 5-6 1993 season, the '94 team returned to find the locker room reorganized at the direction of the coaching staff.
We started talking more
Oregon ‘94 teammates recall the beginnings of a culture shift in that reorganized locker room. DB Jaiya Figueras remembers speaking with his new locker neighbor for the first time, O-Lineman Eric Reid.
"Now suddenly, we're talking to people we didn't normally talk to. It helped out because we started communicating better too," Figueras said when I spoke with him recently.
Since his time at Oregon, Figueras coached high school and junior college football. He now trains athletes in his Cats Not Bears methodology — Learn more: @CoachJaiya
Figueras explained how growing unity among teammates was crucial to the foundations of the 1994 conference title run — but that offseason, Oregon still hadn't quite turned the corner.
Case in point, fast forward through Week 3: Oregon started the ‘94 season 1-2. Losses to unranked Hawaii and Utah didn't bode well for Oregon's conference schedule — and those losses didn't sit well with Oregon's higher-performing players.
"We knew we had more talent than previous years," said Alex Molden when he and I sat down recently. "We had leaders and guys who could do extra."
Molden, an eight-year NFL veteran DB and Oregon Hall of Famer, listed fellow #ProDucks including Herman O'Berry, Danny O’Neil, and Chad Cota to drive the point.
"We started 1-2 with the whole stadium booing us off the field," Figueras said. "Me and Kenny Wheaton knew we wanted to change it."
Those fair-weather fans booing the Ducks in their home stadium overlooked two things that were about to become very visible to those outside the program:
18 years into relentlessly building Oregon's foundation, Rich Brooks had taken to recruiting guys who hadn't experienced much losing in high school.
The guys in that reorganized locker room grew more connected every day, they were dissatisfied with the 1-2 start, and they were talking to each other about it.
To be clear, the '94 Ducks were frustrated and vocal, but not complaining. Of all the directions a season can go from a 1-2 start, Gang Green gravitated toward fixing it.
The players-only meeting
One side-chat led to another — Overnight, the conversation grew. Roommates Figueras and Wheaton talked about it. Molden and Cota too, then O'Neil and RB Ricky Whittle.
For Oregon, that moment of talking about fixing it became a moment of deciding where to start — and the first practice day of the ‘94 Oregon-Iowa game week centered on a players-only meeting.
"In '94, there was a lot of talk about coming together. You hadn't really heard that in '93," Wheaton said. "Jaiya has always been that guy ... stepping up for a lot of things people might have been thinking, but he was always one to say it."
The players-only meeting went right to the point.
"I put up my hand and said we need to treat practice like a game," Molden said. "I gave the room permission, If you see me not going 100 percent, get on me about it."
"I put my hand up and asked them, Who's with me?"
Molden, a first-round 1996 Draft pick with first-team All-America and two first-team All-Pac-10 honors, now speaks and writes about leadership and performance — learn more: AlexMoldenSpeaks and The Ultimate Playbook for High Achievement.
"I put my hand up and asked them, Who's with me?"
—Alex Molden, Gang Green and #ProDucks DB
That show of hands before the first practice of the Oregon-Iowa week might be the closest thing to a singular turning point in Oregon's decisive step up from an 8th-place 1993 season, and their transformation into '94 Pac-10 champions.
"Some guys started raising their hands," Molden said. "Could have been peer pressure, but that day was the best practice we'd ever had."
As Molden recalls it, the meeting wasn't a big, loud burst of energy — Not a pep talk; not a blame session, but a collective realization that they had far more potential than they’d shown in their 1-2 start and that together they could do something about it.
Molden tells me those hands raised signified commitments to a higher level of accountability.
They could fix a lot of it — Together.
"From there after every play, we were having a party. That all started during the Iowa week," Molden said.
It took a second great practice the next day for a few players and coaches to finish processing Oregon’s culture shift as it played out in real-time.
"Rich Brooks was a fiery coach," Molden said. "He could be a little bit intimidating, but he softened up. Brooks even smiled during that practice."
The '94 teammates gradually recognized the transformation taking hold, even in the first 24 hours of their chosen accountability.
"Man if the head coach can change and he's having more fun during practice, then we can make that same change in games, Molden said.
By game day, Iowa had no way of knowing about Oregon's transformation since the loss to Utah the Ducks put on tape the previous Saturday.
"We put together a great week of practice. You could see that guys were getting it. We knew we were gonna do something special that day," Molden said.
Sept. 24, 1994, final score: Oregon 40, Iowa 18 — and the Ducks wouldn't have a losing record in the remaining months of the 1994 season.
Many of the same guys who signed after being recruited during Oregon's 3-8 run in 1991; many of the same Oregon guys who tied for 6th in '92 and 8th in '93 — they were on their way, transforming from a 1-2 start to what became the historic 1994 Gang Green championship season.
The clearest steps in that '94 culture shift started the week of the Iowa game — stemming from that players-only meeting, from unity and choosing accountability.
"All of us coming together was so important. I take my hat off to everyone on the '94 roster. All the coaches, training staff, everyone."
— Kenny Wheaton, Gang Green and #ProDucks DB
Oregon closed Sept. 1994 with that 40-18 Iowa win — the first of eight wins in a nine-game stretch to close the regular season.
The Ducks powered through a mid-season Pac-10 grind — beating three of four ranked conference opponents they faced in a span of five weeks.
"When guys started making plays we thought, Maybe we can make another play. Maybe we can win another game. And another, and another," Figueras said.
Gang Green 30-Year Throwback is an series, built from our exclusive interviews with Oregon's 1994 Pac-10 Champions. Subscribe and have subsequent chapters of the Gang Green 30-Year Throwback delivered to your inbox:
1994 Oregon schedule and results
Portland State — Eugene, Ore. W, 58-16. Sep 3(Sat) 1-0, 0-0
Hawaii — Honolulu, Hawaii. L, 16-36. Sep 10(Sat) 1-1, 0-0
Utah — Eugene, Ore. L, 16-34. Sep 17(Sat) 1-2, 0-0
Iowa — Eugene, Ore. W, 40-18. Sep 24(Sat) 2-2, 0-0
#19 USC — Los Angeles, Calif. W, 22-7. Oct 1 (Sat) 3-2, 1-0
#22 Washington St — Pullman, Wash. L, 7-21. Oct 8 (Sat) 3-3, 1-1
California — Eugene, Ore. W, 23-7. Oct. 15 (Sat) 4-3, 2-1
#9 Washington — Eugene, Ore. W, 31-20. Oct 22 (Sat) 5-3, 3-1
#11 Arizona — Eugene, Ore. W, 10-9. Oct 29 (Sat) 6-3, 4-1
Arizona St — Eugene, Ore. W, 34-10. Nov 5 (Sat) 7-3, 5-1
Stanford — Stanford, Calif. W, 55-21. Nov 12 (Sat) 8-3, 6-1
Oregon St — Corvallis, Ore. W, 17-13. Nov 19 (Sat) 9-3, 7-1
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